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SJ section champs are ran on a super hard course called willow hills yesterday. Not a well known course but its 5k and over 300ft of elevation gain.
Main stuff from yesterday was Broen Holman is a beast and will be an individual qualifier for NXN.
Oakdale has a great shot at NXN especially if they beat Dana Hills which they are definitely capable of doing. Jesuit was just recently ranked number 5 in state but they did struggle yesterday due to an illness that spread through the team. Ponderosa has a solid 1/2 with Chu and Brooks and should podium in D3 at state.
Whitney girls have a solid lineup and so do Oak Ridge as they had good days yesterday.
I would say overall a weaker year for SJ Section but still some solid talent to look out for in two weeks.
Yeah no, Oakdale will not beat Dana Hills nor do they have a good chance at that. You have better odds of betting that you will find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow than Oakdale beating Dana.
I hope you run for Dana Hills. Otherwise that's a really weird thing to be so adamant about for high school cross country.
I wouldn’t say conditions were too much of a factor at all. Very minimal. There was sun during all the varsity races with the exception of not as much during D4.
Yeah no, Oakdale will not beat Dana Hills nor do they have a good chance at that. You have better odds of betting that you will find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow than Oakdale beating Dana.
I hope you run for Dana Hills. Otherwise that's a really weird thing to be so adamant about for high school cross country.
What data or results support the idea that Oakdale will beat Dana? Objectively speaking. Dana has only gotten better since Clovis. Oakdale has a better chance of beating Great Oak than Dana Hills at this point. What’s weird is that I’m not allowed to share my opinion that is backed by facts. Are you running in the race as well because it seems you care a little too much about me and my observations.
I hope you run for Dana Hills. Otherwise that's a really weird thing to be so adamant about for high school cross country.
What data or results support the idea that Oakdale will beat Dana? Objectively speaking. Dana has only gotten better since Clovis. Oakdale has a better chance of beating Great Oak than Dana Hills at this point. What’s weird is that I’m not allowed to share my opinion that is backed by facts. Are you running in the race as well because it seems you care a little too much about me and my observations.
Oakdale is getting worse each week after Clovis, their number two is now their number one and their top runner at Clovis got dropped, running almost 30 seconds slower than last year. Dana Hills is much stronger and has definitely been getting better each week, they have the strongest number one in the state and their number two is running better and better. Also Dana Hills looks more like a team as Oakdale seems to be racing each other. At the SJS meet one of the Oakdale runners was making fun of his teammate for going out hard but then got dropped ending up 3rd in the meet. If anyone knows what is going on with that team please post, but from what I can tell they will not make NXN.
What data or results support the idea that Oakdale will beat Dana? Objectively speaking. Dana has only gotten better since Clovis. Oakdale has a better chance of beating Great Oak than Dana Hills at this point. What’s weird is that I’m not allowed to share my opinion that is backed by facts. Are you running in the race as well because it seems you care a little too much about me and my observations.
Oakdale is getting worse each week after Clovis, their number two is now their number one and their top runner at Clovis got dropped, running almost 30 seconds slower than last year. Dana Hills is much stronger and has definitely been getting better each week, they have the strongest number one in the state and their number two is running better and better. Also Dana Hills looks more like a team as Oakdale seems to be racing each other. At the SJS meet one of the Oakdale runners was making fun of his teammate for going out hard but then got dropped ending up 3rd in the meet. If anyone knows what is going on with that team please post, but from what I can tell they will not make NXN.
The runner throws up a 3 moments after winning oakdale's 3rd straight section title. mustve been making fun of his teammate
Did you mean D3? I thought the two fastest times were Oakdale and Ponderosa (even though they finished 3rd in the merge)
I don’t limit my search to boys teams exclusively like many on here do.
I'm not trying to argue. I looked and believe that I'm seeing that D2 had the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th fastest teams. Out of 5 divisions (including tiny D5 schools and a relatively small D4 schools), that seems like what I would expect to see out of a D2.
To me, D3 having 1st and 2nd is more remarkable. Sorry that you don't agree.
Willow Hills runs significantly slower than Woodward. When the course first opened, I ran the numbers for all qualifiers to the state meet. Boys ran about 50 seconds faster at Woodward and girls about 60.
it’s gotten faster over the years as the surface has been smoothed a bit and people have learned how to run it. I’d say that 35 seconds for the boys and 40-45 for the girls is realistic
It was getting quite warm by the time d1 and D2 ran yesterday. It was warm when my girls ran at noon in D4. So, the afternoon races were in fact tougher. This bodes well for Whitney’s girls.
I know the Oakdale coach well. They’ll be ready to run at State. It wasn’t even close between them and Jesuit/Davis in the power merge. Yes, it was warm, but maybe 10 seconds slower warm. No more. They’ve been consistently under rated but manage to throw down on thanksgiving weekend. Jacob Cavenaugh had been injured and they held him out last week. He should be ready to roll in 2 weeks.
I'm not trying to argue. I looked and believe that I'm seeing that D2 had the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th fastest teams. Out of 5 divisions (including tiny D5 schools and a relatively small D4 schools), that seems like what I would expect to see out of a D2.
To me, D3 having 1st and 2nd is more remarkable. Sorry that you don't agree.
I know you were responding to another poster, but CA prelims really shouldn't be judged at all for results. So many teams run subs, "tempo" or take the race easy.
Finals next week is a much better judgement on how the state shapes up going into state meet/nationals since almost every team has to run hard to make it.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
He wasn’t talking about southern section. He was talking about Northern California - where the teams were running to advance to state so no tempos…. I know it’s often hard to remember there is whole other sections ;)
Don't think prelims will answer much. Even in SS which is super tough, the top teams can basically tempo the course (and in big schools like GO case, just run subs or something) because of how many bad teams are funneled into prelim heats from weak leagues.
CIF finals next week will be the time we will know the big answers and roughly what rosters are going into state.
SS finals is one of my favorite race days of the year, but the forecast is for some rain, though not heavy, on Weds, Thurs and Fri, and clear on Saturday. How much rain can the standard Mt Sac course handle before they have to run the rain course? Isn't the rain course not only flatter, but shorter as well?
It is looking more likely that the rain course may need to be used. Now the forecast is rain starting Weds night, and going all the way through Saturday afternoon. That could change though, there is still a chance the storm could move more east than south. I hope they can run the usual course, but I wouldn't want to run down Reservoir Hill on muddy ground.
Was watching some of videos for cif ss prelims at mt sac and my god, I hope the biker recording is not there for cif finals. I know it must’ve been unintentional but they were throwing a lot of dust to the front runners, I’m sure that must’ve been really annoying.
Was watching some of videos for cif ss prelims at mt sac and my god, I hope the biker recording is not there for cif finals. I know it must’ve been unintentional but they were throwing a lot of dust to the front runners, I’m sure that must’ve been really annoying.
I find that the cart is much more annoying than bike dust (my experience is from a decade ago tho). The cart exhaust smells awful and usually felt like it screwed with my breathing.
I wear glasses/sunglasses so my opinion on dust may be less valid, but I never really felt like the dust screwed with my breathing.
SS finals is one of my favorite race days of the year, but the forecast is for some rain, though not heavy, on Weds, Thurs and Fri, and clear on Saturday. How much rain can the standard Mt Sac course handle before they have to run the rain course? Isn't the rain course not only flatter, but shorter as well?
It is looking more likely that the rain course may need to be used. Now the forecast is rain starting Weds night, and going all the way through Saturday afternoon. That could change though, there is still a chance the storm could move more east than south. I hope they can run the usual course, but I wouldn't want to run down Reservoir Hill on muddy ground.
Rich Gonzalez just posted on X that "..rain course use is very possible." Also, they are running Saturday rain or shine. And a new schedule was posted, along with a map of rain course.
Central Section Finals are tomorrow! It's been raining off and on since noon today so hopefully the course isn't too messy for the meet. I have a few predictions!
D1 Boys: The individual favorite has to be Carter Spradling of Clovis East. TRAC champion last week in 15:25 with a 15:16 Woodward PR and 4:07/8:50 wheels. Race for second should be pretty good with 6 guys who could conceivably be there: Teg Pandher (Clovis North), Luke Sanders (Buchanan), Sam Dressick (Clovis West), Alex Valencia & Liam McKnight (Bakersfield), Tyler Daillak (Paso Robles), and Jansen Geyer (Buchanan). The team battle will be interesting. Buchanan is the favorite but if Clovis East has some PRs I could see them butting heads for first but they will be far more affected by the expanded field than Buchanan with Buchanan's 4th man at 16:08 vs East's 16:29.
D2 Boys: Devin Ibarra of El Diamante is the strong favorite here with a 15:20 Woodward PR from his win at the Roughrider Invitational. No one else in the field has broken 16 at Woodward as far as I'm aware. The team battle here looks to heavily favor Monache on paper.
D3 Boys: Joshua Bell and his 14:50 from the Clovis Invitational wins here no question. I'm very interested to see how Matilda Torres sophomores Benjamin Fernandez (15:37 PR) and Hunter Hannah (15:40 PR) do! A 15:33.4 would add either of them to the Central Section Sophomore top 10 list (passing Carter Spradling who is 10th at 15:33.5). Maybe chasing after Bell could take them there! Matilda Torres is the team favorite here.
D4 Boys: Evan Torres of Parlier, with his 15:40 PR, should win here easily as no one in the field is within 1 minute of his best at Woodward. The team favorite is McFarland.
D5 Boys: I have no clue how the individual race will go here. Freshman Blake Ray of Fresno Christian is the favorite with his 16:14 from the Clovis Invite vs the 16:21 in the same race from Yosemite's Noah Graffigna. Last season, however, Ben Olney, Jack Olney, and Ford Stegge of Yosemite ran 15:44, 15:50, and 16:00 respectively. If they can approach that form again tomorrow then it would easily secure Yosemite a team title and really shake up the individual race.
D1 Girls: Buchanan. Team and individual. Who specifically will take the win is hard to say. I'd lean toward Stefania Sesock who won the TRAC championships last week.
D2 Girls: Mia Torrecillas and the Highland squad she leads are the favorites from what I can see.
D3 Girls: I predict a close race between Templeton's Frannie Perry and El Diamante's Brooklyn Bawanan and as their Woodward PRs are far ahead of the pack (19:00 and 19:05, respectively). The team race is probably between Monache and Wasco with Monache getting the nod from me.
D4 Girls: Matilda Torres' Sophia Mirelez should be the favorite here with her 19:00 best at Woodward. This could be another race where the field is wide open but I'd say it's a toss up between Kerman and Arvin.
D5 Girls: This should be Clara Riddle and Immanuel's race to lose.
